Page 14 of Toren

That earned him a scathing look. “Definitely not.”

“Are you really going to make me guess?” Toren asked.

“I’m honestly just trying to come up with a way to say it that doesn’t make me sound like a monster,” Andrew admitted, eyes downcast.

There was something serious in the quiet tone that set off alarm bells in Toren’s head. He fidgeted with the sheets in his hands, wishing he had some clothes on…or at least underwear.

“You’re seeing someone?” Toren asked.

“I’d like to be seeing you.”

“Besides me.”

Andrew groaned out a breath, head bobbling side to side.

“You’re seeing someone,” he said, sure of the statement after Andrew’s non-denial.

“It’s complicated.”

Toren cursed under his breath, climbing out of bed and snatching his underwear off the floor. He stopped short of his pants, hoping the cotton would be enough armor to get him through the rest of this conversation. Before Andrew could stop him, Toren sat down on the edge of the bed, his leg beside Andrew’s.

“Tell me how it’s complicated.”

“The long version or the short?”

“Use your best judgment,” he suggested.

Andrew reached for the water, taking a swallow and returning the glass to the nightstand. Toren could see the condensation on his fingers, watched Andrew wipe the wetness off on his bare thigh.

“We were together in college, almost three years. He…Dave…he wanted to be in an open relationship, but he was too careless for it. He wanted too much, not just from me, but everyone. We broke up and it was horrible.” Andrew fidgeted his hands together in his lap, and Toren had to sit on his to stop himself from reaching over to calm Andrew’s nerves. “Lost contact, obviously, but randomly reconnected a few months ago. He’d changed, or I thought he’d changed.”

“Did he not?”

“Not as much as I thought.” Andrew licked his lips, clearing his throat and daring a glance at Toren, who hoped his expression was unreadable. “So, to your question, yes, I do have a boyfriend, but we’re in an open relationship. Nothing we did last night was against his rules.”

Toren wished there was a handbook for dealing with the emotions that came from finding out you were the other man in someone’s relationship while your balls were still tingling from an orgasm. If there wasn’t, maybe he’d write one. He couldn’t be the first person this had happened to.

“I don’t want to be in an open relationship,” Toren said, picking each word slowly to make sure he meant them and that Andrew heard exactly what he was saying. “I’m not polyamorous.”

“Toren—”

“I wouldn’t have gone back to the hotel with you if I’d known.” He hated how true that confession was, hated more the way Andrew winced away from him after he said it. “But I did, and here we are now.”

“I saw him earlier today,” Andrew said.

Toren’s mouth filled with saliva like he was about to throw up. He covered his mouth with his hand, looking away from Andrew, mentally searching out which pieces of clothes on the floor belonged to him so he could get them gathered up quickly.

“Did you fuck?” Toren asked before he could stop himself. He didn’t really want to know, but he had to ask.

“What?” Andrew sounded truly offended. “Absolutely not. We…I told him I’d been with someone the night before and he didn’t take it well.”

“You said you were open.”

“We are. Were. But I’d⁠—”

“Were?” Toren’s eyebrows shot up, and his heart sank to his feet.

“You’re the first person I’ve actually been with besides him, and he decided maybe he didn’t want to be open anymore after all.” Andrew rested his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands, the next words coming out muffled. “I agreed, but when I got home, I called him because I was going to break it off.”